PM Modi's Make in India initiative is very welcome, says Michael Dell

Dell backed PM Modi's ‘Make in India' campaign and said his company would look to increase exports from its manufacturing unit in Chennai.Anirban Sen&Pankaj Mishra | ET Bureau | September 08, 2015, 12:24 IST

BENGALDell backed PM Modi's ‘Make in India' campaign and said his company would look to increase exports from its manufacturing unit in Chennai.URU: Michael Dell, founder of the over $60-billion Dell, said he does not plan to retire anytime soon and raised ambitions from India, which is now the company's third biggest market after the US and China.

"I think being 50 years old and being in good health, it's not a likely scenario anytime soon (retirement and succession)," said Dell in an exclusive interview with ET. "We take talent development and succession planning very seriously because leadership of a company is very important and precious. So, one of the things I've thought about for a long time is what happens when I'm hit by a bus or something horrible happens, the company has to go on." Dell, who brushed off any plans of ever going public again, said that the company had a good pipeline of next-generation leaders within the company.

"My job is to ensure that there is sufficient talent in the company if that happens. I believe we're in pretty good shape there. I'm 50 years old, which is no more than the average age of a Fortune 500 company. But I'm having a good time, the business is doing well, can't do it forever but it's working well and we don't have a problem. The thing I think about all the time is if I didn't have any affiliations or allegiance to what we had done before, given everything that's going on now, what would we be doing," said Dell. Dell also backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign and said his company would look to increase exports from its manufacturing unit in Chennai, which was set up in 2007.

"The Make in India initiative is very welcome — I think developing more of the supply chain... is a great thing and will only help us make in India more and to export," he said. Dell also said that India would continue to be one of its most important markets globally in the near term. Dell's finance chief Tom Sweet had said in a recent interview with ET that India was on course to become a $3 billion market for Dell. "We see tremendous opportunities to keep growing — India went from not being in the top 10 markets for Dell to now being No.3. India grew 30% last year for Dell, which is fantastic. We think that it can continue to grow at a healthy pace, so our investments will be in line with that," he said. Dell, which quit the smartphone business in 2012, said it has no plans of taking another crack at it and dismissed any plans of attempting a comeback in the smartphone business.

"Which company is making money in selling smartphones? How much money has Lenovo lost in the smartphone business? We have to consider those factors when making a decision. We see great opportunities in storage, data management and networking and all kinds of areas where we think we will get a better return on our investments than in smartphones," said Dell. He took the example of HTC, which is struggling to make money.

"HTC products are nice, but what's happening to them financially? It's a disaster. You can buy HTC for a negative $500 million. That's the enterprise value of HTC as of a couple of days ago. So, what the market is telling you is that it doesn't like that business. Who wants to lose a billion dollars? Let the other guys lose a billion dollars," said Dell. When asked about the wave of smartphones taking over from the PC market, Dell said it's a false idea that "it's an either or" scenario. "How many people do you know who own a smartphone and not a PC?" asked Dell. Dell, who disrupted the personal computing industry in the 90s, brushed off concerns on the death of PCs.

On the philanthropic front, through the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, over $185 million has already been invested in India, averaging $24 million annually. Dell said he prefers to back for-profit social enterprises such as EDUTEL Technology Solutions where the Foundation parked $2 million last year. "I'm a big fan of philanthropy but I feel what we do as a company has far greater impact," said Dell. "One of the things our philanthropic efforts have figured out in India is that for-profit entities like EDUTEL are much more successful at providing positive outcomes than strictly not-for-profit entities going after the same problems."